At present, we know very little about the transition from traditional learning skills to models of standardized learning, and how it can influence the way one understands and solves problems. This research will examine cognitive performance and the factors affecting variation across communities and between individuals as it changes with age. The objective of this dissertation is to measure cognitive performance among children between 8 and 18 years of age exposed to variable levels of formal schooling in order to investigate three main research questions: (1) Whether exposure to schooling and increased performance in school-based abilities, such as math and reading, are positively correlated with performance on tests that measure cognitive ability. (2) How training to the test affects performance within schooled and unschooled populations. And, (3) how upstream factors, including parental embodied capital and family size, can impact child outcomes in school and on cognitive tests
